Accept No Substitutes

by Robert Sheckley

Genres: Humorous sci-fi

Synopsis

Sex Surrogates were developed for human colonies where it was so tough to survive that only men were sent there for months and even years. The foothold on these planets was tenuous and death was an everyday distinct possibility. So no women were sent there yet. But these brave men wanted women and to provide a very temporary and stopgap solution, Sex Robots or Sex surrogates were developed and shipped out to them. Crude at first, these were slowly refined and improved until the men began to bring them back to Earth, preferring them to human women. This did not set well with human women and so the Sexual Morality Laws outlawed all production. Of course despite fierce attempts to suppress them, illegal underground factories still tried to supply the demand for them from men who had heard the stories and could afford to try something forbidden and 'a bit more'. Our protagonist here is one of these rich men and he has perhaps bitten off more than he can chew. Or perhaps he has not bitten off not quite enough? Listen to this humorous tale of sex in the far future by the famous SF Robert Sheckley, and see why he says to "accept no substitutes'.